Samantha hesitated as Chris sat on the bridge over his koi pond, she sighed walking forwards. "Hey, Finley wants us to help out the Drubman family."
He looked over, pulling his feet back over the bridge, "right. Let me get my shoes and jacket on and we'll be off." She nodded walking back to the porch.
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"Hey! Mr Drubman?"
"You a registered voter? Ah, don't matter, long as you vote for me anyhow. I need help of a different sort. Let's get to the point: You see that steaming pile of disappointment over there prayin'? That's my loinfruit. Hurk Junior. Dumber than a coal bucket. He takes after his mama."
"Stupid sonofabitch lost my jeep and if those Obama lovin' Libtards find out I can't look after my own property, I can kiss this House run goodbye…" Chris turned to him.
"House run? House District 97?"
"Where else dumbshit."
"I don't know, fucken preschool. Moron." Samantha groaned.
"Chris, shush." She gestured to the elder to continue.
"Now, seeing as you're on my land and I didn't kill ya even though it's well within my rights as a red blooded American gun owner — I'd say you owe me." Samantha turned as her partner began reaching behind his back.
"Calm the fuck down Chris!" He shook his head.
"No, this asshole literally just threatened us, we aren't gonna help him." He drew his knife and the man pointed his rifle at him.
"I can shoot you much faster than your pussy ass knife can stab me." Chris laughed.
"Just as it's in your gun owning rights to kill me without due cause it's within my rights to kill you in self defense after you threatened my life. Your move you old fuck."
The old man laughed, "Look, I can tell a libtard when I see one. Get off my property."
"No, get out of my state. Old fuck."
Samantha continued trying to keep them from fighting each other, trying in vain.
"Chris! Let's go, we're leaving!" The man nodded, grabbing his knife and kicking over Hurk Sr's rocking chair; he laughed as the man desperately tried to get back into his seat. "Finley, this is Samantha, get someone else to do it. Chris damn near tried to kill the guy."
She turned to him as the pair drove back down the road, "what the hell is your problem! We do not assault innocent people!"
"Innocent my ass, that asshat actively threatened an officer of the law and someone who's insane, and he insulted my family! You don't fucking do that! I've got nothing to lose at this point so if you've got a problem with me, fine!" He pulled over and she watched as he climbed out and followed the road back to his house.
Samantha sighed walking around the truck and hopping into the driver seat, she thought about it however decided against going after him.
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Samantha looked up at Finley as they're helicopter flew towards the chalet, the other woman looked over from the helipad they had just taken off from. "So, your target is, as we said, the chalet, it's where the Peggie's train up their Chosen."
"Alright, the Chosen are the ones with the planes?"
"And bows. Jacob sends his damn Chosen to capture his targets." Finley looked up, "they use their prisoners as targets. And your job is to blow the chalet to hell."
"While you?"
"I'm following up on a lead where Chris is. Be careful. This is your stop." Samantha nodded, jumping from the chopper and falling to the ground.
Samantha slowly crept towards a large house on the hill overlooking the town, large glass windows staring down the hill, luckily, she was coming from above. She paused as she noticed a training field with a tower looking over it, she quickly ascended the tower eliminating the Peggie sniper within and scanned the field identifying a Chosen and tossing a Proximity Mine into the crowd.
The Peggie's flew back as the bomb exploded, she turned lifting the sniper rifle that the previous inhabitant had left behind to her cheek and firing at the three who successfully ran before turning to the other sniper. She fired as the sniper's gun turned towards her, the man fell off his tower to the ground with a gasp and Samantha nodded.
She quickly grabbed onto the zip line landing on the upper balcony, her feet slammed against the ground as she launched herself to the first bomb stop. She quickly planted a block of C4 on the chimney before turning around and jumping to the floor.
She threw the other Chosen into the wall however he forced himself back into her, she groaned grabbing him and throwing him against the wall once more. He lifted his mask and she stopped, "look stop! You're with Chris right?"
"Do you know where he is?" The man shook his head.
"No, no. My name is Lycan, I came here to look for clues about where he is." She nodded, "I'm guessing Finley sent you? Seems like something she would do."
Samantha quickly placed the last brick of C4 before turning back to the man, "let's talk on the way back to the Wolf's Den." He nodded strapping his bow behind his back and shedding the jacket, they quickly ran to the forest edge as the building splintered apart and exploded.
The pair climbed into Chris's truck with Lycan sitting in the back so he could change into a new shirt, "so, how do you know Chris?"
"Met in fourth grade, he was the quiet type, always ignored. One of my friends, who was in group therapy with him, said he was the devil." He smirked, "I had lived out of town so I believed him. Then I moved back here and what do you know, Chris is either hanging out with the popular girls or alone, whenever Finley was gone he was alone, which, while rare, happened sometimes."
"So, he was a popular kid?"
"Oh absolutely not, when I got there Zack was moved out of the group and I was put in. We never really spoke until his birthday, May 12th, when I invited him to play iPad with me instead of paying attention to class. A while later we exchanged numbers." He sighed, "overtime I've messaged whenever something changes in my life. He was there for my first girlfriend all the way through to my last girlfriend. Every time I felt bad he was there to help me out."
"Sounds about right." Samantha smirked, Lycan's face fell.
"It's exactly who he is. So much so that it's a fatal flaw. The one time he called to vent, all he told me was that his girlfriend was in a wreck and he and his daughter were ok." He looked ahead of the truck and Samantha looked at him. "That's it, that's who he is."
The two slowed to a stop, parking near the bunker, they quickly made their way down into the bunker and greeted Eli, before walking into the other room. "Alright Wheaty, what's up."
"Well, we have a few stashes scattered around town, however they'd be much more useful here rather than sitting in some old bunker." Samantha nodded, "the only problem, we don't have the map here. Figured if the Peggie's got the Den then they would be able to get all our supplies, however without a map here we have no clue where they are stored."
"Right, where's the map then?"
"In Johnson Lookout up on Blue Mountain, once you get it pick a spot and get over there." She nodded.
"Alright, so we go get it and get the stashes."
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The neck snapped as Samantha twisted the man's neck from behind, "check everything, I'll check the wine cellar." Lycan nodded and she stepped inside looking around. She found the yellow case she was looking for and grinned before the grin was wiped off her face.
"Sam I really hope you found it! We've got company!" She quickly slipped it into her backpack and ran out firing her LMG into the approaching vehicles.
"Go! We gotta get out of here now!"
"Already on it!" A four wheeler sped into view and Samantha quickly jumped on using one hand to hold on and the other to fire.
The two sped down the road stopping at the next cabin nearby, they jumped off and she ran inside with Lycan looking over the grounds, "I think I got something out here!"
The blonde woman rushed over, sliding to a stop at the top of a bunker, "go in and check it out, I'll wait up here and keep watch."
The man nodded sliding down the ladder into the bunker, he quickly grabbed the case and they were off without incident. They rode a mile into the forest to the last cabin, Samantha growled as another ATV sped off, she quickly gave chase as Lycan leapt onto his feet, "get me in close." She nodded.
The two vehicles arrived neck and neck and Samantha felt a weight leave the back of her four wheeler, the driver of the other vehicle fell to the ground and the man atop him slammed his knife into the man's neck.
"Alright. Let's get back to the Den."
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"Damn… glad we can finally put this stuff to use instead of letting it collect dust in some bunker." He opened one to see boxes of ammo. "This is a big help. Can't believe you caught all those guys. Thought for sure they'd get away… thanks again you two."
The bunker door slammed and Samantha turned, Chris walked in carrying a large machine gun. The three greeted him however, like a robot, he walked past humming some song. The group followed him as he walked towards Eli's office, Finley noticed the look in his eyes and ran at him but it was too late. The shell of Chris's body fired into Eli before turning around and being slammed against the wall.
Finley shouted as Wheaty reached for his weapon, "do not do that! He's not himself! Just hold him down!"
Finley grunted as Chris threw her off, "how do we deal with this?"
The man lunged at Samantha and out of reflex she swung on him, he reeled back prepping his own swing. She groaned as his fist slammed against her cheek, he launched another into her chin and another into her stomach.
"Chris stop!" She dropped to the floor as he kicked her shin, "you've gotta recognize me!" He swung his fist down and her face slammed against the ground.
Lycan groaned, grabbing a blunt object from the floor and Chris moved forwards, the man swung the metal pipe towards his friend's head but the other man quickly grabbed the pipe, Samantha pushed herself from the ground grabbing the discarded LMG and slamming it into the back of his head.
They quickly moved him into the interrogation room and into the chair strapping him down and turning on the tape player. "Go, kill Jacob. For all of us."
Samantha nodded climbing out of the bunker, a sniper round hit the ground a few meters away and she shouted running forwards to cover. She quickly peeked over the rock she hid behind, noticing him atop a building's roof not that far away.
A bullet slammed into the ground behind her as she looked for the next piece of cover. She quickly raced forwards sliding to cover, a Peggie racing around the corner. She quickly fired a few rounds into their head and they dropped to the ground.
"There's no escaping this deputy!" She peeked around running to the next cover as Jacob shot at her, "the Collapse has already begun!"
Samantha chuckled running to the side of the building, she quickly climbed up and Jacob dropped his weapon. She stepped forwards and, without a second thought, she grabbed him by the shirt collar before throwing him off the building.
She quickly slid down the ladder watching him take a seat on a nearby rock, a piece of bone sticking from his leg. "My brother saw all this coming, I don't know if he talks to God. That Doesn't matter, he's right, humanity is once again in crisis." She shook her head.
"I don't fucking care." She slammed Chris's Karambit into Jacob's throat and he fell to the ground, "we've been in crisis before, had a collapse imminent. And we survived."
She quickly grabbed the knife, his gun and his necklace, and set off back to the bunker. She dropped his gun on the table before returning to the surface with Lycan.
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"I'm going in alone." Samantha turned as the man laughed.
"Seriously? I'm not Chris I'm not gonna follow you around like a damn puppy. Go get your friend."
She nodded walking to the bunker door, she inhaled deeply before pulling the door open and stepping inside. The bunker smelt damp, the halls were dark and cold, the doors were sealed as she made her way deeper into the earth.
A Peggie spotted her and she groaned leaping at him, the man gasped as they fell to the ground with Samantha bringing her boot down on his neck. She grabbed the mounted machine gun before her and quickly pivoted it as the cultists charged at her.
The crowd dropped to the ground as she emptied the mounted gun into them, the gunfire echoing through the old bunker. Samantha tossed the gun to the side as the last dropped to the floor, she ran following the curved hallways downstairs to the control room where she deactivated the lockdown and smashed the control panel.
She made her way to where they were holding Pratt and paused at the door before walking inside to see him half unconscious in the chair.
"Rook, are you real?"
"Real as the day I was born." She quickly cut him loose and he struggled to stand falling into a puddle at his feet. "Woah, take it easy."
"He said I was weak. That I deserved this. Maybe he was right." Pratt looked around before walking towards a sledge hammer next to the main console of the room they were in. "Maybe I deserved it. Maybe I did." He lifted the sledge bringing it down on the console as Samantha moved onto the platform just above the waterline. "Maybe I did! Maybe I did!"
He slammed the hammer into a lock on a nearby case, lifting the lid and revealing another machine gun just like hers. He turned it towards the waterlines. "They made me strong. And now they are weak. And the weak must be culled." He fired a spray of bullets into the water pumps causing water to rush out, "we gotta go."
Samantha nodded and together they made their way back into the halls and towards a large open room. A man wielding a flamethrower blocked their path however they didn't last against a pair of LMG's. They quickly ascended the stairs and gunned down more standard issue Peggie's, Sam groaned as another heavy Peggie stood in their way. Pratt ran to the side and the heavy following him allowing Samantha to run up behind him and throw him to the ground. She lowered her weapon against his helmet and fired a burst shattering the helmet and killing the man wearing it.
The pair found the stairway sprinting up and out the airlock as a loud whistle hit its highest pitch. The pair dropped to the ground as flames burst from the bunker and the water lines pumping water in exploded.
"Let's get back to the Wolf's Den," Lycan looked over. "Deputy Pratt, nice to meet you. I'm Lycan."
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Samantha sighed as she sat next to Chris's sleeping form, the radio blaring Get Free by The Vines. Above them Lycan stood watching Finley lift a torch in front of Eli's body.
"Each of us found the Whitetail in our own ways, but what brought us here was loss. Families. Friends. Eli gave us back a little piece of that." She paused. "He showed us the only thing we can rely on is each other."
"He was my friend." She dropped the flames into a small hole full of kindling underneath his body and the pyre quickly lit ablaze. "And I'm gonna miss him." Lycan looked at the ground, he remembered meeting the old man around town. He was always there.
"Eli thought if we could just hang on. Wait it out. Eden's Gate would just go away. But they won't." Wheaty turned back to the crowd. "Cancer doesn't fade. It grows, it spreads. You have to cut it out."
"These fucking Peggie's believe the end of the world is coming? It is for them. Eden's Gate ends today! We won't stop until every last one of those mother fuckers is hanging from these trees!"
Samantha turned off her radio as the speeches ended, a voice breaking her from her thoughts. "What the fuck is this shitty song?" She turned back to the formerly unconscious man.
"Well, what would you prefer?" He smirked as she unlatched his restraints, he reached into his pocket pulling out his phone.
He quickly opened Spotify, turning to a playlist labeled Songs Of My Childhood, she laughed as the song Grenade by Bruno Mars began to play. "This is better." She nodded, helping him move to the couch next to her.
"So, where next?"
Chris paused, "Stevensville is just south of us, Faith's territory. Her dumbass calls it the Henbane. Let's just make our way south." She nodded.
"Well, let's wait on that, we've had enough excitement." The man nodded and they slowly fell asleep, about a foot apart, listening to Bruno Mars.
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Samantha smirked, stepping onto the back porch of the house, in front of her Chris lay once again on the edge of the bridge with his feet in the water, blue earbuds in his ears. She quietly stepped onto the bridge careful not to alarm him and jacked one of his earbuds, placing it in hers before laying the opposite way, their heads next to each other.
I just need to let it go, waitin' on a miracle
Guess that's just the way it goes, easy come, easy go
I just need to let it go, turn it down and lay low
It's just the way it goes, easy come, easy go